A 37-year-old Tustin man was sentenced Friday to 44 years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to raping a woman he persuaded to give him a ride home.

A charge of kidnapping was dropped against Michael Curtis Hernandez, according to Orange County Deputy District Attorney Rebecca Reed.

Hernandez had been accused of meeting the 21-year-old woman on Dec. 1, 2013, at a grocery store in Orange and repeatedly sexually assaulting her after they arrived at his home until she managed to escape about 3 a.m. the next day, according to prosecutors.

Hernandez had been charged with four counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of forcible rape, and one count each of sodomy by force, sexual penetration by a foreign object and force, kidnapping to commit a sex offense and false imprisonment by violence or deceit, all felonies.

Hernandez had a prior strike conviction for kidnapping in 2003.

–City News Service

Tustin man begs young woman for ride home, rapes her for hours; 44-year prison sentence was last modified: September 22nd, 2017 by Toni McAllister